Creating new perspectives since 2009
Items by Ramona Wadi
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Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings
“Resistance, in its plethora of meanings and images, is what motivated Ghassan Kanafani to write,” Louis Brehony and Tahrir Hamdi write in their introduction to Ghassan Kanafani: Selected Political Writings (Pluto Press, 2024). Its publication could not have been more timely as the world witnessed, first-hand, what ethnic cleansing and…
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The PA renders the Palestinians vulnerable to Israel’s ethnic cleansing
On Sunday, Palestinian Authority leader, Mahmoud Abbas, requested an urgent meeting of the UN Security Council regarding Israel’s colonial violence in the Occupied West Bank, notably the targeting of Jenin and Tulkarem Refugee Camps. Like countless other times, Abbas requested international protection for Palestinians and pressure on Israel to stop…
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Incitement and action point towards an ongoing genocide
The relief over the brokered ceasefire was soon overshadowed by ‘coincidences’ which make one wonder about the oppression that Palestinians face relentlessly from Israel, the US and the international community. The ceasefire was agreed upon during the last dredges of the Biden administration, while Israel’s ban on the UN Relief…
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The inheritance of colonisation plans and the US administrations
At the start of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, the Israeli government made no secret of its intention to forcibly transfer Palestinians from the enclave and urged the international community to support its plans for what it called ‘resettlement’. “Europe has a long history of assisting refugees fleeing conflicts,” Danny Danon…
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Trump’s return and the humanitarian paradigm
Throughout his first tenure, US President Donald Trump mounted a campaign against the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) which included slander and defunding – the aim being to ultimately alter the definition of who can be classified as a Palestinian refugee and render the agency defunct.…
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Complacency and hypocrisy should not play a role in the genocidal aftermath
“Our UNRWA teams reported a good first day of the ceasefire; aid and some commercial supplies started flowing in smoothly,” the humanitarian aid agency’s Commissioner General Philipp Lazzarini stated in a post on X. The post went on to mention the release of three Israeli hostages prior to the generalised…
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What legitimacy is the PA talking about?
“While we are waiting for the ceasefire, it is important to stress that it won’t be acceptable for any other entity to govern the Gaza Strip but the legitimate Palestinian leadership and the government of the state of Palestine,” the Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister, Mohammad Mustafa, stated during a meeting…
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The PA strives to keep its own violations away from scrutiny
The Palestinian Authority (PA)’s official news agency Wafa published details of a report describing testimonies of Palestinians from Gaza detained, tortured and interrogated by Israel. Many detainees are suffering from ongoing physical and psychological trauma, the PA’s Prisoners and Ex-Prisoners Affairs Commission’s report states. The details are horrifying. Prisoners scalded…
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When it comes to genocide and Palestine, the world is — deliberately — getting its priorities wrong
As Israel’s ban on the UN Refugee and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) looms closer, the language used by officials deals more with possibilities than realities. The reason, it seems, is to give Israel enough of an advantage in carrying out its genocide, while Palestinians remain trapped by the…
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Celebrating revolution by annihilating it is Abbas’s style
Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas should have stayed silent on the 60th anniversary of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) launching its resistance against the Israeli occupation. Anniversaries, however, are too compelling for Abbas. Palestinians, therefore, were regaled with a speech that exploited the Palestinian anti-colonial struggle, while the Palestinian Authority’s…
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The Destruction of Palestine is the Destruction of the Earth
Referring to Frantz Fanon in the preface to The Destruction of Palestine is the Destruction of the Earth (Verso Books, 2025), Andreas Malm ponders the exhibitionist nature of the coloniser. “Every suggestion of a limit to the destructive power of the settler colonial state is received as a questioning of…
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The PA wants its repression hidden in plain sight
The Palestinian Authority cannot help making a fool of itself. Its recent decision to suspend Al Jazeera’s broadcasts, ostensibly because the news outlet was “broadcasting inciteful content, spreading misinformation, and interfering in internal Palestinian affairs,” is an example of the scale of the repression of his own people which PA…
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Israel’s humanitarian gimmicks and settler-colonial detachment
While continuing its genocide in Gaza, Israel still wants to play its faux humanitarian concern card. An article published by AP yesterday, which made its way to the Times of Israel albeit with some details regarding the kill toll edited out, is one recent futile attempt by Israel to maintain…
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As clarity on Israel’s genocide grows, so does the int’l community’s silence
More proof of Israel’s genocidal intent and actions comes from an investigation conducted by the New York Times, which discovered that since 7 October 2023, the Israeli military issued an order that allowed the killing of up to 20 Palestinian civilians with each strike. In terms of an order, the…
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The perks for genocide in Gaza
In “enemy territory” – Israel’s euphemism for Gaza – it is beyond satire to see the Israeli military destroying Gaza’s infrastructure in order to kill Palestinians, while building infrastructure for its soldiers. Ynet news has reported on the construction of a retreat for Israeli soldiers where they can relax, rest…
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The EU continues to protect Israel and its genocide of the Palestinians
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen marked the first anniversary of the Hamas cross-border incursion by saying: “On October 7, 2023, the world awoke to horrifying images of unspeakable savagery, scenes that will remain etched in our minds forever. On this tragic anniversary, I want to honour the memories…
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Genocide in the name of security, according to Israeli settler narratives
Israeli settler leaders are calling upon the Israeli government to emulate the genocidal strategy used against Palestinians in Gaza to displace and ethnically cleanse Palestinians from the occupied West Bank. In a letter to the Israeli security cabinet, Yisrael Ganz, head of the Yesha Council which deals with settlement affairs,…
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Connecting the dots between Hebron and Gaza
As global attention remains focused on Gaza, although not to safeguard the Palestinians from genocide, Palestinians in the occupied West Bank have been facing increasing violence from Israeli soldiers and settlers. B’Tselem’s latest report, titled Unleashed: Abuse of Palestinians by Israeli Soldiers in the Centre of Hebron, shows how colonial…
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UNRWA, Palestinian children and the two-state diplomacy that works against children’s rights
According to UNRWA Commissioner General Philippe Lazzarini writing on X, “Wherever we work, @UNRWA is dedicated to helping children be children.” He noted the severe disruption of their education for Palestinian children in Gaza. No matter what anyone says, though, colonialism and genocide do not allow children to be children.…
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Amnesty Israel: for human rights or Israel’s political agenda?
Israel’s genocide in Gaza has been up for debate for over a year and diluted to the point that even humanitarian pauses have evaporated into nothingness. The only sliver of concern that remains is securing the release of the remaining Israeli hostages. And the only reason the hostages still feature…
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The first signs of Jewish colonial resettlement in Gaza
Israel has demolished over 600 buildings to create a so-called buffer zone in what the Israeli military refers to as the Netzarim Corridor, which cuts Gaza in half and has been occupied militarily since November last year. The lack of clarification by the Israeli government over its plans for Gaza…
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An Old Carriage with Curtains
Ghassan Zaqtan’s impeccable weaving of Palestinian memory serves as a reminder of how far such memory can extend in a confined, ever-shrinking geopolitical space constantly eroded by Israeli colonialism and the ensuing military Occupation. The last book in a trilogy, An Old Carriage with Curtains (Seagull Books, 2023) does not…
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Israel was born and depends on ethnic cleansing
His admission about Israel’s ethnic cleansing in Gaza was a shard of truth from former Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Ya’alon, albeit dissociated from what created Israel in the first place. In an interview with Israel’s Democrat TV, Ya’alon told the interviewer: “There’s no Beit Lahia. There’s no Bein Hanoun. They’re…
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France sets a precedent in non-compliance with the ICC Netanyahu arrest warrant
France has given an example of how non-committal diplomacy works to create impunity for genocide. After describing the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant as “legally complex”, the French government has now confirmed that it will not comply…